A Waymo self-driving robotaxi caused an unexpected jam at a Chick-fil-A in Santa Monica this week after getting trapped in the restaurant’s narrow drive-through lane. The incident, first reported by KTLA 5, was confirmed by Waymo in an email to TechCrunch.
According to Waymo, the vehicle had just completed a passenger drop-off in the parking lot when it attempted a multi-point turn. The close proximity of the drive-through lane and other parked cars made the maneuver impossible, leading the vehicle to block traffic temporarily. No passengers were on board at the time.
Thankfully, there were no injuries — just some hungry and frustrated drivers stuck in line.
This isn’t the first time Waymo’s autonomous vehicles have made headlines for getting confused. Over the past year, one vehicle was caught endlessly circling a roundabout, another halted in front of former Vice President Kamala Harris’ motorcade, and an entire fleet reportedly honked for over an hour in a parking lot.
Waymo, a subsidiary of Alphabet, currently operates commercial robotaxi services in San Francisco, Phoenix, and Los Angeles, and also runs a service in Austin in partnership with Uber.
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